“The the true path to immortality is a road trodded alone.”

As soon as the Ant General unleashed its aura, the remaining old Devil Dao cultivator was immediately suppressed.

Unfortunately, the enemy's early Core Formation cultivation base had no way to break free from it. And as he struggled, the Ape corpse puppet ceased from doing anything as well.

The Devil Dao cultivator’s body shivered and his face pleaded for mercy—but the giant Ants were fast enough to take advantage of the situation as they immediately mobbed the enemy that Qai no longer had the time to stop their onslaught.

As that happened, the Queen Ant finally appeared from his shadow and gobbled up the remains of the 2 Devil Dao cultivators

Meanwhile, the ‘young master,’ who hired the services of the 2 and who was hiding from afar, fell down on the ground from fear. And as he woke from daze, he immediately fled from the area and decided never to show his face before Qai again.

On the other hand, Qai breathed a sighed when he saw the Queen Ant did its favorite thing.

He understood that there was some sort of benefit for Spirit Beasts to eat a cultivator’s body—but in Qai’s recollection, only his contracted Queen Ant would do such a deed.

He shook his head and just let such thoughts go. At that moment, there were more important things for him to do.

Qai then picked up the storage pouches of his enemies before hastily setting up new sets of Array formations.

Although he could not sense any other enemy from where he was, he was nevertheless still afraid that the enemies he had just slain had other companions. Thus, he rearranged most of the Array formations.

Thereafter, he went inside his cave to check his spoils.

As for his losses, apart from a number of Ant Workers that perished, he lost the formation plate which he thought would serve him for a long time.

Qai could only sigh.

At any rate, the storage pouches had evidently stronger restrictions so he knew it would take several days for him to undo them and to place his own mark.

In his mind, since it would still take days for the rescue to arrive, he decided to start the refinement process.

And in so doing, he let the Ant General and the 12 Ant Soldiers patrol the 3-mile radius area within their protection zone.

If anyone could see the giant Ants, they would be surprised to see Spirit Beasts marching back and forth in an army line formation around the area.

But as for the rest of the Ant Workers who survived, they were all recuperating in the nest within the Queen Ant’s body.

After 5 full days, there was still no sign of any Precious Tree Sect who should have come to his aid—but on the bright side, he was able to complete the refinement of the storage pouches without interruption.

When he swept his Spiritual Sense inside the pouches, he was stunned!

‘Core Formation stage cultivators are indeed rich!’

In truth, the 2 Devil Dao cultivators he slew were actually ‘poor’ by anyone’s standards, perhaps due to being rogue cultivators—it just so happened that those storage pouches were by far contained the most wealth Qai had ever seen.

Inside, Qai saw several treasures which included Jade slips, precious herbs, various refining materials, formation flags, talismans, medicinal pills mostly compatible with Devil Dao practices and, of course, a bunch of Spirit Stones.

Among the Jade slips, Qai found Dao possession method, Soul searching techniques, Array formation records, a record of various precious herbs and their uses in Pill Alchemy, Corpse puppet refinement, blood sacrifices methods, and a high-grade Concealment technique.

From these Jade slips, Qai only wanted to learn the Soul searching and the high-grade Concealment techniques. Then he would keep the records concerning Array formations as well as that of precious herbs for future reference.

As for the rest, he would sell them off.

He thought twice about the corpse refinement but decided not to learn it. He wanted a puppet for himself but he wouldn't want to use a corpse to start creating one.

Nevertheless, he would also study about it since the old Devil Dao cultivator had apparently ‘gifted’ him an Ape corpse puppet.

Qai took a deep breath after he finished inspecting all of his gains.

Were it not for the timely arrival of the Queen Ant, perhaps he would be dead right now.

And when he emerged from his cave he looked around and noticed the flurry of dried leaves being blown by the smooth gust of wind.

Suddenly a sense of melancholy welled up in him.

Qai then caught a leaf that was being blown with his hand.

He thought of his past life, of Count Augusto, of the Thorns territory, and of his two brothers.

Then he thought of his new life, of his father and mother, of Little Xi, and of everyone in the Kamaria Island.

Qai then summoned his Spirit Beast Eland and immediately sat on it. He wanted to follow his patroling giant Ants and join their march.

For once, he wanted to feel being a true Noble Knight leading his army as they roam within his territory.

For two days, Qai and his giant Ants were on unhurried patrolling when he suddenly felt a familiar Spiritual Sense sweeping over him and his giant Ants.

Elder Li!

Qai hurriedly summoned his giant Ants even if he knew his biggest secret just got discovered.

He rushed towards the hill and respectfully met the sect elder.

“No wonder you were confident to send your team members ahead.”

The sect elder had a smile on his face but his entire expression was grim.

“Elder..”

“You don't have to fear anything. Your secret is safe with me. In fact, I would have to thank you for saving everyone in your team.”

The elder sighed after learning of Qai’s secret.

“I can already guess what happened to the 2 Devil Dao elites that came here. Even with my late Core Formation stage, I am not certain I can hold my own against your little army.”

The elder then faced the scenery from on top of the hill. His hair and robe flapped when the wind blew across him.

“We had long noticed your potential. It's a pity that had the sect taken much care of you when you came in, perhaps we could have used your ability a bit against the Heavenly Sword Sect. Then perhaps.. perhaps..”

As he said those words, Elder Li’s eyes turned teary.

Qai saw the elder's face and immediately read something between the line from the elder’s statement.

“Elder Li, what happened to the sect!?”

The elder looked at Qai intently and sighed.

“The sect just got disbanded.”

‘What!?’

Qai didn't know how to receive the news.

He had just gotten to the sect—in fact, he still didn’t know much about the sect—now the sect would no longer exist.

The elder noticed Qai’s silence so he began to explain as briefly as possible.

Apparently, in the Precious Tree Sect’s battle against the Heavenly Sword Sect, Ao Clan unexpectedly turned traitor.

Unfortunately, the closest clan to the battlefield, the Shu Clan, got decimated.

Worse, the scale of battle peaked so fast that the grand elder of the Heavenly Sword Sect, a Nascent Soul stage cultivator, joined the fight.

“Our grand elder, our most powerful Dao reserve and the only Nascent Soul stage in the sect who had been in long seclusion had to emerge.”

Nascent Soul stage cultivator!

Qai was shocked to hear that there were cultivators in the continent.

He recalled that they were, so far, the peak of existences that Old Bu introdunced to him.

“They both fought hard but who knew that the enemy has another Nascent Soul stage cultivator. In the end, our grand elder had to submit to the demands of the Heavenly Sword Sect in order to save our disciples.”

As a result, other clans had no choice but to join the Heavenly Sword Sect. And the Ao Tian became the overlord clan of the region.

“The sect is disbanded but it will only be in the meantime. The elders decided that the dispersed disciples should just endure. We will have to rebuild while hiding and come back strong when the Heavenly Dao permits it.”

Qai was taken aback by all the pieces of information he received. He didn't have much heart yet in the sect, but he still felt sad just the same.

“Senior elder, this may be inappropriate. But what happens now about the Contribution Points?”

“That's exactly what I’m going to say next. We no longer have any cause to join this fight. Everything is meaningless now.”

Once again, the elder swept his glance on to the horizon and sighed.

“We’re now all on our own.”

End of Book Two: Rise of the Knight Cultivator